Why Local Authorities Use Independent Foster Care Agencies?

When a local authority cannot place a child or young person with one of their own in-house carers they look externally to the Independent foster care agencies in their area. 

It’s important that a child or young person requiring a placement is matched with a suitable foster home.  It isn’t just about providing bed and board, it’s about giving them the support they need and ensuring the environment is as safe and suitable as possible.

A few considerations the Independent Fostering Agency and the Local Authority will look at when choosing a placement for a child or young person are:

·        The needs of the child or young person – do they require additional care for their emotional or physical needs?

·         The age of children already in the household – we need to judge the impact of all people involved in a fostering placement.  The ages and needs of the birth or foster children already with the family need to be taken into consideration to ensure there is as little disruption as possible.   At Park Foster Care we work hard with our carers and families to reduce placement breakdowns which can have a detrimental effect for all but especially for the looked after child or young person.

·         Location – in many situations it’s important that the child or young person can maintain the routines and relationships in their life i.e. staying at the same school, being able to meet up with their friends and having contact with a birth relative.  We therefore need to ensure that they are in a placement in the local area.  There are other cases though where the placement needs to be made outside of the local area because of the circumstances of the individual case, and it's on these occasions where a local authority may need to use an independent foster care agency to assist.

Most of the Local Authorities have ‘approved supplier lists’ of Independent Foster Care Agencies they work with, these lists will have been compiled after stringent processes and checks with each Independent Fostering Agency.  At Park Foster Care we are proud of our track record of being on these ‘lists’ with the majority of the Local Authorities in the regions we cover and also with the relationships we have built up with the commissioning and placement teams and the Local Authority Social Workers.